Abstract
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Article Information:
The Action Group, Ideology and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy 1951-1966: A Re-assessment
O. Richard and F. Olusanya
Corresponding Author: OOlusanya Faboyede
Submitted: 2010 March, 05
Accepted: 2010 September, 17
Published: 2011 February, 28 |
Abstract:
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The study examines the impact of the colonial economic realities on the emerging Nigerian middle
class, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s nationalist ambition to empower them within these realities, his struggle to
articulate his perception of the way to move the nation forward in ideological postulations as reflected in the
Action Group’s foreign policy perspectives. Motivated by political and electoral exigencies, the party’s foreign
policy platforms suffered from contradictions and inconsistency, opening the party to charges of political
opportunism. The party’s electoral debacle in the 1959 federal elections and its impatience with the Balewa
administration’s conservative outlook led to further radicalism by the AG. Using Chief Awolowo’s own
definition of socialism, albeit incongruous, as opposed to the classical definition, the study takes the position,
contrary to Gordon Idang’s claim, that there are enough salient determinants of AG’s foreign policy within the
political and economic structure of the pre- and post-colonial Nigerian state to explain the twists and turns of
the party’s foreign policy perspectives than dwelling on Chief Awolowo’s childhood ‘deprivations’.
Key words: Action Group, colonial economy and party’s foreign policy, ideology, Nigeria’s foreign policy, party structure, ,
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Cite this Reference:
O. Richard and F. Olusanya, . The Action Group, Ideology and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy 1951-1966: A Re-assessment. Current Research Journal of Economic Theory, (1): 1-9.
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ISSN (Online): 2042-485X
ISSN (Print): 2042-4841 |
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